Tag Archives: task

No easy task for Bhoys

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Hearts are outstanding value at 9/2 to use their home advantage to cause a surprise upset against Celtic at Tynecastle on Sunday. Although the top two in the SPL are likely to surge clear from the rest of the pack this season, any side travelling to Hearts will find it tough to bring away anything from their ground.

Paulo Sergio’s side have won four of their five home league fixtures this season, conceding just one goal in the process. They have been difficult to break down, and have tasted defeat just once on home soil.

Despite a disappointing run of form away from home, Hearts are fourth in the SPL table and will relish the challenge of taking on Celtic in front of their home crowd. If they could improve on their results on the road, they could be a lot closer to the top two in the league.

Sergio does have the disappointment of not being able to select Andrew Driver into his squad on Sunday, he is struggling with the knee injury that has kept him out of action for large parts of this year. Whilst Marian Kello and Kevin Kyle are still are still on the sidelines. Otherwise it is a full strength side for the Portuguese man.

The visitors did have the distraction of a tough Europa League tie against Udinese on Thursday evening. As we have seen in the past, side’s often struggle from a European hangover when they return to domestic action the following weekend. They have just had two days to recover and prepare for this tricky SPL clash.

Neil Lennon’s side were denied a valuable victory over the Italians at Celtic Park, but were tested really hard against a club who ran Arsenal close in their Champions League qualifying defeat to the Gunners.

Joe Ledley was a casualty from the draw with Udinese. He was taken off at half-time with a groin injury, and will be a big loss to the midfield of the Bhoys.

Celtic have shown vulnerability at many points this season, none more so than throwing away a 2-1 lead in the Old Firm clash with Rangers, in which they eventually lost 4-2.

The Hoops are already seven points behind their rivals Rangers in the league, and their season hasn’t gone to plan so far, after being eliminated from the Europa League, but for the reprieve after Sion fielded an ineligible player against them in their victory.

It is unlikely to be anything other than a tight game at Tynecastle on Sunday, but take Celtic to fire blanks. Hearts can judge edge the three points with a 1-0 victory that is priced at 11/1. The home side may have to be patient, and continue to defend as well as they have done at home this season. However, they are more than capable of doing this.

They are likely to frustrate Lennon’s team, and with the backing of their home crowd, can add more torment to Celtic’s season so far.

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Forest face uphill task

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Nottingham Forest will be desperate to put recent play-off disasters to one side when they tackle Swansea City in the first leg of their Championship semi-final at The City Ground (Forest 13/10, draw 23/10, Swansea 21/10 in the match betting).

Four years ago, when Forest were languishing in League One, they seemed certain to be heading to Wembley when they won at Yeovil Town 2-0 in the first leg, only to suffer a stunning 5-2 home reverse to the Glovers in the return clash.

After that amazing aggregate defeat, Forest did at least bounce back by winning automatic promotion 12 months later, but they were to endure another disastrous play-off experience at the end of the 2009-10 campaign.

Billy Davies’ side were everyone’s favourites to see off rank outsiders Blackpool even after they had been beaten 2-1 at Bloomfield Road in the first leg.

However, despite being unbeatable at The City Ground in the second half of the regular season, including a run of 12 successive victories, they contrived to lose 4-3 to Ian Holloway’s inspired side, who went on to beat Cardiff City at Wembley to confirm their place in the Premier League.

Despite a few wobbles along the way, Forest finished the 2010-11 campaign strongly to see off the challenge of Leeds United and Millwall and clinch sixth spot.

However, they will find it difficult to see off a Swansea City side that have a notoriously mean defence and are 13/5 with totesport to keep a clean sheet on Thursday.

Last term, under Paulo Sousa’s astute stewardship, they only just missed out on a top-six spot after conceding a paltry 37 goals in their 46 matches.

Despite Sousa’s summer defection to Leicester City, the Swans have prospered this term under ex-Watford and Reading manager Brendan Rodgers.

Once again their defence has been solid – Rodgers’ side conceded only 42 goals as they finished third – but they have added some goalscoring flair to their defensive organisation, finding the net 69 times in comparison to last season’s tally of 40 goals.

Former Chelsea starlet Scott Sinclair (13/2 to open the scoring at The City Ground) has been in blistering form, scoring 19 times in the Championship this term.

He has received good support from Darren Pratley and Stephen Dobbie who have both netted nine times.

There has been little to choose between the two sides this term, with Forest beating Rodgers’ team 3-1 at The City Ground in September, before the Swans gained revenge at the Liberty Stadium in March when they won by the odd goal in five.

Despite the prize on offer being so vast, a high-scoring game could once again be on the cards, with 12/1 available on a 2-2 draw.

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Leeds upbeat on Gunners task

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Andy O’Brien and Simon Grayson have joined forces to insist Leeds United can pull off another FA Cup shock against Arsenal at Elland Road on Wednesday (Leeds 21/5 draw 3/1 Arsenal 8/13 – FA Cup match betting).

Players and fans alike could be forgiven for keeping an eye firmly fixed on the principal aim of returning to the Premier League, but seasoned Leeds followers will know the famous old domestic cup competition evokes fond memories (10/3 Leeds – npower Championship Promotion 2010/11).

The Whites took the prize scalp of cross-Pennines rivals Manchester United last season and held Tottenham to a 2-2 draw at White Hart Lane before finally bowing out at the hands of the north Londoners.

This time around they have the chance to send Tottenham’s capital rivals out of the FA Cup in front of what is again expected to be a white-hot atmosphere in West Yorkshire.

Arsene Wenger’s Premier League title-chasers needed a dramatic late penalty from captain and talisman Cesc Fabregas to spare their blushes at Emirates Stadium and O’Brien has warned the Gunners they can expect more of the same.

O’Brien said: “I don’t think we have missed our chance. To a certain extent, the Cup games take care of themselves. We were the underdogs but now we are playing at home with a massive support behind us.”

The winners tomorrow will be at home to in-form League One promotion-hopefuls Huddersfield Town in the fourth round, and O’Brien added: “I don’t think an FA Cup run is a hindrance. As a professional footballer, you want to stay in as many competitions as possible for as long as possible and if we’ve got a lot of games it means we are doing something right.”

Grayson added: “We have got to be underdogs because Arsenal have some fantastic players. We will look to try and get through and we will go out with the attitude that we can win it and give them a tough night, but we have to be aware of what Arsenal can do because they are a fantastic team.”

Leeds won their most important FA meeting with Arsenal in 1972 when a diving header by Allan Clarke from a Mick Jones cross was the only goal of the centenary final at Wembley.

However, Arsene Wenger has never experienced third-round defeat during his Arsenal managerial career and it is difficult to ancticipate the Gunners flopping (6/1 Arsenal – FA Cup outright).

Defender Sebastien Squillaci (hamstring), midfielder Abou Diaby (calf), goalkeeper Manuel Almunia (ankle) and centre-back Thomas Vermaelen (Achilles) remain on the sidelines, so Wenger will have to shuffle his pack.

Leeds are unbeaten in seven games in all competitions at Elland Road so the advice here is to take the 4/6 on both teams to score and cover yourself with the 2-1 (7/1) and 3-1 (10/1) Arsenal win correct scores.

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Jose hints at Herculean task

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Jose Mourinho has warned his Real Madrid players they cannot relax when they travel to Estadio Jose Rico Perez on Saturday to take on Hercules (9/1 Herucles, 21/5 draw, 3/10 Real Madrid – 90 minutes).

Spain’s capital club have banged in 16 goals in La Liga either side of the recent international break – going back to the 6-1 drubbing of strugglers Deportivo La Coruna – and head to Alicante determined to stay ahead of the chasing pack at the top of the table (10/11 Real Madrid – La Liga Outright).

However, Mourinho has called for a reality check from Real followers and has warned his players they must not expect a cakewalk against the La Liga newcomers.

He said in his Friday press conference: “We are in good shape. We are playing well and working hard. We are not children. There will be close calls because we cannot always win 6-1.

“We must stay on track and score goals, but this is a difficult championship and every match is different.”

Hercules caused a seismic shock when they beat champions Barcelona 2-0 at the Nou Camp on September 11 and the Portuguese coach know there can be no excuses, adding: “There is a long way to go. We have only played eight games.”

Xabi Alonso, Mesut Ozil, Marcelo and Ricardo Carvalho – who all missed the surprise goalless draw against Real Murcia in the Copa del Rey in midweek – will all return for Saturday’s trip.

Mourinho knows there can be no mistakes against Hercules, who also held Villarreal to a 2-2 draw at home recently, and has demanded his players pick up where they left off in La Liga (5/6 Real Madrid-Real Madrid – Half-time/Full-time).

He added: “I will make some changes against Hercules. It is an important match; even more so than a Champions League game because we cannot lose points. We want to win and remain on top of the table.

“The players I called up are those who are in the best form, and those who start will either be the same or very close to previous line-ups.

“I hope my players help bring home the three points so that we are still first come Sunday.”

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Henry faces up to Liverpool task

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New Liverpool owner John W Henry has admitted he faces a tough task in reviving the club’s fortunes but is confident the Reds will again be able to compete with the best soon (Liverpool 11/1 to be relegated).

Henry’s NESV group finally became the new owners of the Merseysiders on Friday following several nervy days of court battles both in the High Court in London and in Texas as former custodians, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, attempted to block the reported £300m deal.

Henry, who initially said he would not be watching the Merseyside derby at Everton on Sunday but in the end was at Goodison Park for the 2-0 defeat, admitted there is plenty of work to be done to get the club back among the elite – both on and off the pitch.

“What am I thinking? How much work this is going to be. How steep the learning curve is going to be. This is not going to be easy,” he said.

“We realise the challenge that lies ahead if we are going to go toe to toe with the other big clubs.

“We are not asking for a long honeymoon. This is a contact sport we are in and the going can get rough sometimes. We realise that.”

Henry plans to meet Liverpool fans’ groups in the next few days to listen to their concerns but he insisted he has a good track record in reviving sports clubs and hopes the success NESV have enjoyed with the Boston Red Sox can be emulated at Anfield.

“We are not going to make any promises but we are going to listen and consider,” he added in the Liverpool Echo.

“There were big financial issues but in the end we made a decision we really wanted to compete at this level.

“I don’t have ‘Sheikh’ in front of my name but we look at revenues in sports as being the ability to send out a strong team on the field.

“When we arrived at the Red Sox, the New York Yankees were a juggernaut and it wasn’t that much of rivalry.

“I believe we turned it into a rivalry where we have gone toe to toe with the Yankees even though they have got a much higher revenue.

“They keep going up but we have gone up faster. When we looked at Liverpool, the first thing that struck us was there are opportunities here to really build a winner.”

Liverpool’s revival on the pitch cannot come quickly enough following a shocking start that was compounded by the derby defeat on Sunday, but they have a Europa League clash next up on Thursday when they go to Italy to face Napoli (Liverpool 10/1 – Europa League Outright).

Under-pressure boss Roy Hodgson has yet to lose in Europe this term but the Reds’ dismal Premier League form so far has left his side second bottom of the table, ahead of West Ham but only on goal difference.

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Holloway realistic on task ahead

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Blackpool manager Ian HollowayBlackpool boss Ian Holloway has admitted his side have a huge challenge ahead of them as they open their first season in the Premier League with a home match against Lancashire rivals Wigan Athletic (Blackpool 6/4, draw 11/5, Wigan 6/4).

Holloway has warned fans not to expect the club to bring in a hatful of new players as the Seasiders will adopt a conservative approach to try and stay in the top flight next term.

The 47-year old has learned lessons from other Championship clubs who reached the Premier League and went for the ‘boom or bust’ approach to stay in the division.

He said: “People think we’ve got £90million hanging out of our back pocket that all the wages and transfer fees we used to pay before, they think we can suddenly join the big boys, which would be suicidal if we did and we’re not going to do that.

“You’ve only got to look at Hull and the problems they’ve now got. All of a sudden the wheels come off – we can’t afford to do that for our club so we’ve got to be really careful what we do. It’s learning new things and we’ve got to learn very quickly,” he added.

Blackpool will be looking to follow the success of teams like Stoke City who, as well as retaining Premier League status for two straight seasons, have managed to be one of the few clubs in the division to run at a profit.

The fixtures for next season were released on Thursday and after the Pools home match with Latics, they face tough games against Arsenal (6/1 to win the Premier League)  Fulham and fellow promoted side Newcastle United.

Holloway has said the players already at Bloomfield Road will have their chance to play against the Premier League’s best teams as they managed to get the Tangerines up from the Championship thanks to a 3-2 playoff win against Cardiff City.

However, the manager has reiterated that his team will have to raise their game if they expect any chance of avoiding relegation.

He said: “My players will have to get used to getting beat a few times. It’s fantastic, isn’t it? Has it really sunk in with anyone (yet)? Blackpool are in a league fixture against some of these teams.

“We’ve got a complete culture shock. We’ve got a complete change in everything we ever thought about as a football club. The most exciting thing for all of us is that it’s such a challenge.”

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